The pain had settled into my bones, each lash that collided with my skin sent unimaginable pain across my body. Not even once did he hear my cry or have mercy on me.
I didn’t know how many times he struck me five? Ten? It blurred into one long, white-hot scream that echoed in my head long after the room fell quiet. My body trembled against the leather straps. My skin burned, raw and exposed, every breath scraping through my throat like glass.
I wanted to fade away, to just disappear into the silence.
The pain was so unbearable, just as I felt like I was slipping away , I heard it.
A voice, a whisper, I didn’t even know how to describe it.
“ Don’t let him get away with this,”
But it wasn’t Lucian, it wasn’t even me. It was deeper, older, like a whisper from the pit of the earth.
“G
